US states are implementing drastic cuts to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, creating further hardships for 700,000 families that include 1.3 million children. The slashing of funding for TANF, the welfare program financed by block grants to states from the federal government, is part of an overall attack on all social programs in the US.
The impact and scale of the cuts are documented in a May 19 report issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a liberal policy group. CBPP report lists three areas of cuts being made by the states:
* Monthly cash assistance benefits have been cut in several states.
* Time limits for receiving TANF benefits have been shortened.
* Working families with low incomes face cuts in TANF-funded supplements in several ways. Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit (partially funded by TANF) is being slashed by two-thirds, for example... This is part of a state budget that sharply cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy. In other states, families are having their supplemental TANF benefits cut or eliminated.
These cuts are being carried out by both Democratic and Republican governors. Among the states citied by the CBPP that are cutting benefits are: Washington, under a Democratic governor, where benefits have been reduced by 15 percent, or $84 per month for a family of three; South Carolina under a Republican, by 20 percent; and 8 percent in California, under a Democrat...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/tanf-m30.shtmlPS: as the article goes on to note, the programmatic changes that have made TANF cuttable are a product of Clinton's "welfare reform" which turned need-based afdc into time-limited/block-granted TANF.
It's been funded at 1996 levels for its entire existence: "At only 72 percent of their original value in inflation-adjusted dollars, state and federal TANF funds can no longer fund the same level of services and support as they did 15 years ago.”
The government estimates that 1 in 4 american children will soon be growing up in poverty.